Does it matter what time I go to bed, as long as I sleep the same number of hours?
Yes. Always retire at the same time, otherwise you confuse your biological clock.
Do I need more sleep?
If you are fit, you need more sleep if you tend to unintentionally fall asleep in situations where you wish to be attentive, such as watching TV, reading, listening to a public lecture or driving. However, being overweight and unfit can cause fatigue and sleeping more may only make it worse.
Can I make up lost sleep at the weekend?
Yes and no. One school of thought says a nine or 10-hour sleep on the weekend can make up for the sleep deficit accrued by a week of five-and-a-half hour nights. Another says sleeping late can cause weekend headaches and confuse your body clock, so you should always rise at the same time every morning. Which approach to choose is a question best answered by individual experience.
Can I train myself to sleep less?
Yes, according to Prof Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Laboratory at Loughborough University. His volunteers cut 15 minutes per day off their sleep-time until they reached six-and-half hours and showed no ill effects.
Should I take naps?
No, if you are bad sleeper, since your goal should be to feel truly tired when you go to bed. Yes, if you are a good sleeper who feels great in the morning, but then struggles with a "dip" of tiredness during the afternoon. Power-napping, as it's called in the US, can be a great reviver. A 15-minute snooze can make you more alert and efficient. To enable yourself to nap, it's probably best to learn a relaxation technique. What should I do when I can't sleep?
You must get out of bed, even if it's the middle of the night, urges Dr Benjamin Natelson. Or you will begin mentally associating bed with sleeplessness. Instead of lying awake, get up and go into another room and watch TV or read until you feel sleepy. What about the old-fashioned advice to reading a boring book?
Never read in bed, says Dr Natelson. Using your bed as a reading chair will destroy your mental association of bed with sleep. Ban TV from the bedroom, too.
Is a late night drink a good idea?
Heavy alcohol consumption can disrupt sleep patterns, making a late night drink an inefficient way to bring on sleep. And as steady drinkers get older, the alcohol they take affects their sleep more than when they were younger. If you want to know if alcohol is affecting your sleep, limit yourself to one glass of wine with dinner for two weeks and see if you notice a difference, advises Dr Natelson. Simply forgoing alcohol for a night or two won't tell you anything.
What about diet?
No caffeine after noon should be the rule of thumb for anyone who wants to solve their sleep problems. But don't try cramming 10 cups of coffee into your morning schedule, since it could take 12 hours to metabolise that much. A late, heavy meal, by stimulating gastric juices, can also inhibit comfortable sleep. Lettuce contains substances which make you feel sleepy, so a light, early supper of salad is a good idea. Carbohydrates also make you sleepy; so if hungry at bedtime, try some bread or a bowl of cereal rather than a high-protein snack. Warm milk helps, too, but don't add chocolate, which is a stimulant.
Should I try medication to help me sleep?
It's best to discuss this with your doctor. The new alternatives to sleeping pills are low-dose antidepressants. There are also new sedatives which put you to sleep without the hung-over feeling the morning after. In certain situations in the short-term, sleeping pills can be useful. However, they can cause far more problems than they solve if used to address a chronic sleeping problem.
In the short-term, medication can help to reduce insomnia caused by some recent stress, thereby relieving the stress which comes from sleeplessness, ending the vicious cycle of tiredness and sleeplessness. The medicine works and the patient sleeps, and at the same time the source of stress ceases or becomes less intense. In the meantime, however, the patient has come to associate falling asleep with a pill, and cannot sleep without it. This is worsened by mild withdrawal symptoms characterised by anxiety and sleeplessness. The problem is less serious for those who do not need to take medication every night. Taken two or three times a week, the sedating effect usually remains and the problems are minimal.